WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Amid market expectations the Fed may be forced to tighten monetary policy sooner than expected, top U.S. central bankers delivered a simple message to investors fixated on rising U.S. bond yields and price risks: Do not expect any changes until the economy is clearly improving.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell arrives to speak to reporters after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in an emergency move designed to shield the world’s largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus, during a news conference in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
Testifying on Wednesday before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the U.S. central bank’s promise to get the economy back to full employment, with little worry about inflation unless prices begin rising in a persistent and troubling way.
“We are just being honest about the challenge,” Powell told lawmakers when asked about Fed projections that inflation will remain at or below the central bank’s 2% target through 2023.
The Fed has said it will not raise interest rates until inflation has exceeded 2% and “we believe we can do it, we believe we will do it. It may take more than three years,” Powell said. The current inflation rate by the Fed’s preferred measure is about 1.3%.
An expected jump in prices this spring, he said, may reflect post-pandemic supply bottlenecks, or a jump in demand as the economy reopens, but nothing to warrant a policy response.
Powell’s remarks led a broad central bank effort to convince the public and particularly bond market investors that it is not going to tighten monetary policy until it is clear people are getting back to work.
Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have risen recently, with the risk of a potential spike in inflation in focus as the United States expands its coronavirus vaccination program, plans further fiscal spending and moves toward a post-pandemic reopening of the economy.
Financial markets are pricing in a better outlook for the U.S. economy, and “that’s appropriate,” Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, adding he had become more bullish himself in recent months.
What that does not mean, he said, is any imminent change to the Fed’s near-zero setting for short-term interest rates, or its bond-buying program.
“We to a person are going to be patient, we are going to be very careful, and we are going to be very, very transparent of our intentions well in advance of any decision we might make in the future,” Clarida said.
Clarida said he sees inflation rising above 2% in the spring but coming back down to about that level by year’s end.
Talk about a possible market “taper tantrum” in response to a change in the Fed’s bond-buying program is “premature,” Clarida said. A taper tantrum refers to a rapid run-up in bond yields based on changes in market expectations for Fed policy.
“We have a deep hole, there’s still a ways to go, and I think that settings of monetary policy are entirely appropriate not only now but, given my outlook for the economy, for the rest of the year,” he said.
‘FRONT-RUNNING THE FED’
While some observers believe the Fed may need to remove crisis-era policies sooner than expected, that argument ignores the Fed’s new jobs-first framework, said Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist with SGH Macro Advisors.
“If we try to force the Fed into the old framework, we will be front-running the Fed. The Fed will not validate such front-running,” Duy wrote of Powell’s appearances this week before House and Senate committees. “The Fed intends to maintain easy policy until the data pushes it in another direction and the Fed does not expect that to happen for a long, long time.”
The Fed has said it plans to keep buying $120 billion a month in U.S. government and government-backed securities “until substantial further progress has been made” toward the Fed’s maximum employment and inflation goals.
With the inflation target a long way off, Fed officials have focused on what they see as a major gap in the labor market as well – a scar that goes well beyond the 6.3% headline unemployment rate to include concerns about disproportionate joblessness among minorities and the exodus of women from the labor force.
In recent weeks, Powell, Clarida and others have used an alternate measure of around 10% that includes, for example, those who have left the labor force in recent months, and even that may fall short of the damage to workers the Fed hopes to repair.
Powell, who testified in Congress as part of his mandated twice-a-year appearances on Capitol Hill to provide updates on the economy, said the Fed needed to see tangible progress before shifting gears, not just anticipated improvement, and not premature bets from the bond market.
“We are not acting on forecasts,” Powell said. The policy “is what it sounds like – incoming actual data that sees us moving closer to our goals.”
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Peter Cooney
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
